The first full weekend of college football was a breath of fresh air. College football enthusiasts around the country packed stadiums to cheer for their teams and enjoy the company of others.
It was wonderful to see and showed how abnormal the pandemic-shortened 2020 college football season truly was. With few to no fans in the stands, the passion and pageantry that comes with the sport was missing.
But there are those who were horrified to see fans filling college football stadiums over the weekend.
Dr. Anthony Fauci appears to be one of those who is concerned about the lack of social distancing and mask-wearing at stadiums around the country.
Tuesday morning, Fauci joined Jim Sciutto on CNN’s “New Day,” and said he didn’t “think it’s smart” for stadiums to be packed with fans.
“I don’t think it’s smart,” Fauci said of the college football crowds. “Outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregate setting of people close together – first, you should be vaccinated. And when you do have congregate settings, particularly indoors, you should be wearing a mask.”
Sciutto noted that it was unclear whether stadiums were requiring vaccinations to enter, to which Fauci spoke of local vaccine mandates.
“We could be stuck in outbreak mode and that’s why I think what you’re going to be seeing is … a lot more local mandates,” Fauci said.
“There are gonna be organizations, there are gonna be universities, there are gonna be colleges, there are gonna be sports events, travel events, where the rule is going to be if you wanna participate – you get vaccinated,” Fauci added. “If not – sorry, you’re not going to be able to do it. And I think when we get more and more of that, I think we’re going to start seeing a great diminution in the number of cases.”
Some colleges have announced that fans will be required to present either proof of the vaccine or a negative test result in order to enter stadiums.
In late August, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University became the first Power-5 schools to announce that either a negative test or proof of vaccination will be required in order to attend football games for the 2021 season.
“Effective Monday, August 23, attendees 12 and older at designated University of Oregon events and activities—including select concerts, conferences, and all Oregon Athletics events—will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the past three days to obtain entry,” reads a statement on the UO website.
The news came days after Tulane University became the first FBS school to require either proof of vaccination or a negative test result in order to attend Tulane football games.
College football fans showed out in week one, with massive attendance numbers around the country.
Attendance at Neyland Stadium for UT vs. Bowling Green:
84,314https://t.co/2WWffxz27X
— Adam Sparks (@AdamSparks) September 3, 2021
Kyle Field announced attendance tonight: 97,339. pic.twitter.com/dvJYc3IG6D
— Brent Zwerneman 📰 (@BrentZwerneman) September 5, 2021
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].